Chapter 3: Crash Bandicoot
by Austin Miller
Summary: This is the epic conclusion of the prequel trilogy to the game. Now the story will begin to focus on the two separate lives of Cortex and Crash as they prepare to meet again.


The two bandicoots awoke to the sound of screaming, and quickly rushed towards the back of the cage. At the Evolvo-Ray, the first male bandicoot had finished its transformation. As the smoke cleared, the bandicoot was trying to free itself from the cuffs on its wrists. It was a maroon color, eyes full of rage and anger. It began shouting loudly, trying to reach for the people who had turned him into a monster.

Cortex began to jump in excitement as he gave the bandicoot a shot of narcotics. The bandicoot slowly drifted to sleep, and the Lab Assistants placed him in the Cortex-Vortex chair. They machine hummed and the bandicoot was raised up inside. The machine began to screech as a blinding light filled the room. Cortex began laughing until he heard an unfamiliar sound from the machine; violent shaking and banging was coming from inside, along with the usual screaming from the animal inside. "Brio, shut down the machine! Something isn't working right!" Brio quickly pulled the lever back down, and the chair slowly began to descend. Cortex had his laser gun out, pointed at the lowering chair, his hands shaking.

Immediately, the bandicoot jumped out, with wires in its mouth, and cords in its hands. He lunged at Cortex, knocking the gun away from him. It then lunged at Brio, who moved out of the way. The bandicoot began to run around the lab, tearing everything down as it did.

"No, no, no!" Cortex picked up his laser gun and began aiming at the bandicoot. "I'm too close to having my general! You leave me no choice, bandicoot!" Cortex fired the laser, which struck the bandicoot in the arm.

The arm completely disintegrated, causing blood to spew out at a rapid pace. The bandicoot began howling in pain, and ran over to the cages of animals. He began beating on every door, including the door to the two, unevolved bandicoots that had begun to hyperventilate from all of the excitement. As he stared inside the cage, a laser beam came at his head, and it completely exploded. Blood and tissue flew all over the two bandicoots, along with the rest of the cages. The headless and armless body fell to the ground. Cortex walked over to it and moved its body around with his boot. "Damn, it…" Cortex closed his eyes. "Brio! Fix the machine. We only have a couple of hours until the meeting! We have to get our secret weapon ready!" Brio sprinted to the machine and began hooking wires up and connecting tubes of gas together.

"Okay, d-doctor! There were only m-minor damages. I'm going to run some basic operational t-tests first." Brio got behind one of the many computers in the room and began punching in buttons to simulate the use of the Cortex Vortex. The machine began to hum. Cortex smiled. Not everything had gone wrong! But as soon as this thought crossed his mind, the machine began to make very clunky, mechanical sounds. The large monitor in the room began blinking the big, red words: REJECT.

Yelling, Cortex beat his fists on the table. The two bandicoots, which had finished grooming each other clean, scurried to the back of their cage again in ignorant fear. "Why can't anything go right? It was that wretched bandicoot! Brio, run the simulation again."

Brio began testing and testing the machine for an hour and a half, but with no avail. Cortex finally gave up. "Brio, shut it down and reboot it, then we'll try our next bandicoots!" Brio looked worried, but did what Cortex wanted. The machine powered down, and then immediately booted back up.

"Lab Assistants, grab the female bandicoot and put her in the machine!" The Lab Assistants hurried over to the cage and yanked the door open. The female bandicoot moved to the back corner away from the evil hand. The male bandicoot, however, stood in front of her and began biting at the fingers of the Lab Assistants. Cortex saw this and told them to bring the male one instead, since he was so eager to be first.

The male bandicoot squealed and gnashed as he was being carried over to the table The Evolvo-Ray was immediately booted up and the bandicoot, strapped under a single clamp, looked over at the cage, where he could see his companion for this dark time at the door of their cage watching. The male bandicoot closed its eyes.

Suddenly, waves of electricity rolled off the machine into the bandicoot, and as its silhouette flashed throughout the room, the bandicoot grew larger and larger, more proportional to a human. The machine finally died down, and the process was complete: the bandicoot was now an evolved Commando. "Hurry, Brio" Cortex demanded, "We have such little time! It's almost morning! The sun is going to rise in exactly one hour!"

Brio stopped what he was doing and looked at Cortex. "But doctor, we have not determined the cause of past f-failures!"

Turning, Cortex looked at Brio with a look of pure hatred. "Moron!" As he said this, Cortex beat his fist on the table of the Evolvo-Ray, right by the bandicoot's head. "This bandicoot WILL be my general, and he WILL lead my Cortex Commandos to world domination! I will reign triumphant!" Brio took two beakers and began mixing together a more powerful sedative for the bandicoot. Cortex took a needle from the table and injected the bandicoot.

"T-this should keep him drugged enough to be conscious, but unable to move until he's already in the V-Vortex," Brio muttered quietly. Cortex, ignoring him, took the paralyzed bandicoot over to the Vortex and strapped him in. Meanwhile, the Lab Assistants were strapping the female bandicoot down on the table, and the Evolvo-Ray began zapping her. She began to grow like the male bandicoot did, and was immediately taken off of the table, clothed, and held away from the other bandicoot by two Lab Assistants.

As the bandicoot sat in the chair strapped down, Cortex's heart began to pump violently. "Quickly," he yelled, "into the Vortex!"

Not all of the operations were back up, so Brio began cranking the bandicoot up into the machine. "But Doctor Cortex," the panicked Brio began to say, "the Vortex is not ready! We have no idea what it could do!" His breath became short, and fell to the floor, fainted.

Cortex pushed his unconscious body to the side and finished cranking the bandicoot up and pulled the lever. The room got dark and quiet, when the blinding white light shot out from the machine. His eyes widened at the final completion of his sample Cortex Commandos.

A red light began to flash around the room, and Cortex panicked. He looked at the screen, which read, "BANDICOOT 1.0 REJECT". Cortex began yelling, "Failure again!" The bandicoot climbed out of the chair, and saw that Cortex was running straight at him. "Capture him!" The Lab Assistants began running at him too. The bandicoot, panicked, ran and busted open the window and fell into the ocean below. Cortex looked down into the dark water. Without looking up, Cortex said in a low tone, "Prepare the female bandicoot."

Walking into his board room, Cortex pulled the switch, turning on the lights and booting up the computers. Brio ran in, holding his head. "D-doctor, what happened to the male bandicoot?"

Cortex looked down. "He's dead, the Vortex rejected him and he jumped out of the window. The Vortex is broken, and we have no general. So bring me the kangaroo, the potaroo, and the koala." The screens flashed on, and each board member's face appeared. "Good morning, everyone, I know it's an early meeting, so I'll just keep this short. Brio has gone to retrieve our sample Commandos that I will be presenting to you. Each Commando is built for a different type of warfare, and, in great numbers, will serve the new Cortex Commandos very well." Brio walked in with all of the mutated animals. "Ah, here they are now! The koala, as you can see, is a fine specimen of our Bulk Commandos, animals who will be the powerhouses in the army, all brawn, no brain, perfect for serving under a-" Cortex, avoiding the word general, quickly moved on. "Secondly, we have a kangaroo, who had a brain that did not grow into its body it seems, leaving him completely mentally retarded. But, loyal to me, this kangaroo would be willing to serve in the most ridiculous of missions, even those that were suicidal, one-way missions. The potaroo over here is an expert in all weaponry, and is a skilled shot. We programmed his brain similar to that of an Italian gangster, so that he could obey me, while running his own operation aside from the standard Commandos. "

The board began to write in their notepads. "Do they have names, Neo?"

Cortex began to sweat, as he looked towards the animals, who, in turn, looked back at Cortex. "Of course," he began. "The koala is Koala...Kong, the potaroo is…um…Pinstripe…and…the kangaroo is Ripper the Kangaroo…no, Ripper Roo." He swallowed a big lump in his throat.

The board continued to scribble notes, finally looking up at Cortex. "It seems," the board member on the far right began, "that your animals are sufficient in military combat, but, they lack complete and total control, Neo, am I right?"

"Well, they still fall under my leadership completely, and would lay down their-"

"Do any of them have any leadership capabilities? Able to manage their own smaller groups in combat?"

"Well, the potaroo has shown the most intelligence and can-"

"I'm sorry, Cortex. This just doesn't cut it. These animals are all very loyal to you, but just don't seem to have what it takes for mass production funding. We're cutting your project and your funding. We will be sending a team to retrieve all of our communication devices. We can't leave any footprints, Neo. You understand, don't you?"

Cortex looked up at the board. "You mean, I've spent half of my life loyal to this board, and suddenly, I'm thrown out on my own? What are Brio and I supposed to live on here?" The screens all clicked off. Brio walked into the room, and stood still and quiet, as if Cortex wouldn't be able to see him if he didn't move. "Lab Assistants! Assemble!" Every Lab Assistant gathered around the doorway to the room, forcing Brio inside. "Okay, everybody. This is what we're going to do. We're going to exploit every resource of this island for power, resources, and, eventually, money, so we can fund the Commandos project on our own. We're going to move in, take our ground, and destroy anyone that opposes us, and that includes the board. Koala…Kong, you and a team of Lab Assistants go to the nearest island and take over the natives' mine. Find out what sorts of rocks we're dealing with around here, and see if any of them are profitable. Ripper Roo, you and another team of Lab Assistants go to the waterfalls of that same island, and see if we can't work out a hydroelectric way of powering the castle. I left four sets of large water boards at the dock; they should be capable of moving between the islands. The Lab Assistants, along with the two animals, left the room, leaving Brio and Pinstripe. "Okay, Brio, I'm going to need you to show Pinstripe to our Nuclear Plant. We're going to need his help to manufacture some nuclear weapons, to sell to terrorist groups around the world, and he is the perfect candidate for negotiating with terrorists. He will also oversee the manufacture and distribution of these weapons. So get to it, Pinstripe." Pinstripe left the room.

Brio approached Cortex. "You know that we'll need more than one potaroo to handle the plant and the negotiations, right?"

"Of course Brio, it's all under control. How long do you think it will take to get the Vortex in working order again? I want our female general fitted for duty in time for us to get the army manufactured. I'm glad our last bandicoot was rejected; all he did was crash into everything anyways, which is ironic, because that's exactly how he died. I'm glad that I don't have a Crash Bandicoot in my Commandos."


End file.
